1GOLF

The new Wilson Duo Professional continues the company’s focus on lower-compression cores in golf balls for softer feel, but its complete redesign also focuses on the outer segments of the ball, including a thinner urethane cover, for increased spin.

A full-scale upgrade from the Duo Urethane ball, the Duo Professional will maintain a low-compression core in its three-piece construction much like the 55-compression of the Duo Urethane ball. The Duo Professional will be 60 compression, lower than typical three-piece urethane cover balls on the market.

“We think this is the world’s softest urethane golf ball,” said Frank Simonutti, Wilson’s director of global innovation for golf balls. “We still believe in softest, we still believe in soft feel and we still believe in soft feel for every player.”

As Simonutti rightly points out, however, soft feel does not always directly correlate with high spin. That’s where the new urethane cover on the Duo Professional comes in. The new cover is about 40 percent thinner than its predecessor, going from .04 inches thick to .025 inches thick. The reduced cover size plays an important role in creating spin through its interaction with a firmer mantle section. In essence, parts of the Duo Professional are harder to get the ball to produce the higher spin on approach shots and in the short game that players might sense from its built-in soft feel.

“The cover thickness is significantly less, but that’s going to give you more pinch between the cover and the hard ionomer mantle on the lower swing speed shots from short irons and wedges for a better spin rate,” Simonutti said.

Simonutti said he thinks creating spin on iron shots through the ball’s design is what the better players who gravitate to urethane cover balls demand. “At the end of the day you need your spin rate to be able to hold the greens on your approach shots,” he said, noting the new Duo Urethane is designed to create 6-10 percent more spin on iron shots. “The better players want the ball to hold the green. They want to aim for a spot and know that’s where it’s going to end up.”

In addition to traditional white, the Duo Professional will be offered in a range of matte colors, including orange, yellow and green. In stores starting December 3, it will retail for $35 a dozen.